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tv   Rock Center With Brian Williams  NBC  December 27, 2012 10:00pm-11:00pm EST

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- officer skorggel. - i pulled her over a tammy swanson for driving erratically. ran the plates, saw it was your car. figured it was stolen. - hey, ron, why don't you get me out of these handcuffs, so i can put you into these handcuffs. - yes, and officer, why don't you take off those handcuffs? i want this to be a fair fight. - officer, did you see any sign of a passenger?
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[thumping from trunk] - ron! - there we go. - hey! [thumping] help. >> we have been preparing for months. we have seen mockups of the compound. we have looked at helicopter flight p patteatterns. >> the president said it's a go. >> in that situation you just do some praying. >> what were you watching?
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>> we were able to monitor in real time what was taking place. >> the mood was tense. >> we could see the helicopters and our guys moving. >> when we saw the helicopters spinning, we said that was not the plan. >> we were all holding our breath. >> everyone went whoa. >> we thought about if there was a failure here, it would have disastrous consequences. >> when we got the message that they had killed bin laden, it wasn't over. >> the only thing that i was thinking about was i really want to get those guys back home safe. this was the longest 40 minutes of my life. >> good evening. welcome to "rock center," and merry christmas to all. one of the new movies this holiday season is the new film called "zero dark thirty." it's about the mission to get bin laden and it's controversial because of its version of the story.
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tonight we have chosen to reair our own version of the story as we reported it from the room where the mission was ordered. eight months ago we were allowed to bring television cameras into the white house situation room for the very first time and talk with the principals, the people who were in the room from the president on down. the people who gave the orders and watched them carry out the mission half a world away during that long day and night. here now our special report inside the situation room. we are one floor below ground level in the west wing of the white house, and we are about take television news cameras inside the white house situation room for the first time in its history. we're here tonight entering this room to talk about this photograph taken in this room a year ago and the decisions and the military action that resulted in the death of osama bin laden.
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>> good evening. tonight i can report to the american people and to the world that the united states has conducted an operation that killed osama bin laden, the leader of al qaeda. >> usa, usa! usa! >> the news came out of nowhere. no one in this country was expecting it, just as no one inside the bin laden compound was expecting u.s. navy s.e.a.l.s to arrive by helicopter. one image from that night has come to symbolize the mission. the photograph taken at the height of the raid by veteran white house photographer pete souza. there it is. there you are. >> here i am sitting right here. >> that's an intense look on your face, and everyone is intently watching that screen. >> this is -- if i'm not mistaken, pete, this picture was taken right as atthe helicopter
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was having problems. that's what it feels like, because i remember hillary putting his hand over her mouth at that point. >> when you look at it, what does it conjure up inside you? >> that's the way i usual look when my husband drags me to an action movie. it was just an extraordinary experience and aa great privilege to be part of. >> when you see it now, what comes back? >> we were all just really concentrating. our entire focus was on listening to the play-by-play. as you can see, the president is sitting right behind me. i remember turning and looking and it was just this. no emotion. >> what comes to mind first? is it a sensation? is it a memory? >> it's just tension more than anything else. it was just tension. there's no other way to describe it. >> the picture was actually years in the making.
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when he was president, bill clinton spent 75 cruise missiles trying to kill bin laden. then after 9/11 president george w. bush vowed to hunt him down. >> and the people who knocked these buildings down will hear all of us soon. >> back when he was a candidate, barack obama pledged to step up the mission. >> we will kill bin laden. we will crush al qaeda. that has to be our biggest national security priority. >> the focus for this administration was on getting bin laden. that was a piece of unfinished business that went to the honor as well as the security of our country. >> leon panetta was cia director back in the summer of 2010 when the first big break materialized. the cia tracked a man believed to be bin laden's courier to a walled-off compound in pakistan. satellites parked above the compound revealed another figure. a tall man taking walks in the
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court yard. analysts gave him a nickname, the pacer. the imagery was never know for sure if it was bin laden. >> ultimately it was a 50/50 proposition as to whether it was bin alauladen. >> it was the best intelligence breakthrough in tora bora in 2001. >> when they picked up information and began to get more of a sense that maybe there was something there, at first it was only within the white house. i was brought in in january, and then we began these intensive meetings. >> a series of top secret meetings started up up in inside the situation room, the sit room as its known in white house parlance. at one of those meetings last year, admiral william mccraven the head of special operations command outlined a possible raid on the suspected bin laden compound.
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>> i had 100% faith in the navy s.e.a.l.s themselves. bill mccraven, the head of special forces, had worked with us for months to think through every possible scenario. he's a guy who inspired a lot of confidence, and he's a no-nonsense guy. >> i remember the moment in the sit room, someone said this sounds really dangerous and we're going to expose our guys and what do we know is going to happen? he said with all due respect, we've done this hundreds of times. >> the planning picked up speed, and by april 21st of last year the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff at the time, admiral mike mullen, attended a dress rehearsal with a team of navy s.e.a.l.s at a mock compound they set up in the nevada desert. when did they learn exactly what their mission was and who their target was? >> you have to ask bill mccraven that. they're not idiots. i mean, they knew certainly how critical this was.
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they knew who they were and who they were working with. >> one week after the rehearsal, the launch window opened up. a favorable forecast and moonless night, essential for an attack by air. they knew it could be months before the next opportunity. on thursday, april 28th the president gathered the small core of planners in the situation room to debate the choices one last time. you had a couple up options, doing nothing, an air-raid with no evidence of after action or proof of death or this. you were against this mission as they launched it, correct? >> as i pointed out early on, there was no consensus. the president got us all down in the situation room, and he said, okay, basically roll call. >> what was your vote? >> my recommendation was to go forward. >> and why would you recommend that over others in the group? >> i felt the risk was manageable. the evidence, to me, was compelling enough to take the
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risk. i thought that we could get them in and out no matter what happened, whether he was there or not. >> secretary of defense robert gates recommended an air strike with no forces inserted on the ground. cia director panetta supported aa raid by special forces. so did secretary of state clinton. vice president biden wanted to wait on further proof that bin laden was indeed there. how contentious did it get among members of your team? there was not consensus. >> it was never contentious because i think everybody understood both the pros and the cons of action. there were doubts that were voiced inside the situation room, but they weren't doubts that weren't going through my own head. people advocating action understood that if this did not work, if we proved to be wrong,
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there would be severe geopolitical consequences and we might put our brave navy s.e.a.l.s in danger. >> at the meeting the president did not indicate which way he was leaning. >> as we were walking out and walked up together as we walked out of the room, he said, you know, it's time to make a decision. i know it sounds trite. the president's all alone. all alone. >> the president said he'd have an answer for the team in the morning. he walked back to the residence portion of the white house, had dinner with his family, and then went to his study after they went to bed. how does one spend that night knowing that decision is due in the morning? >> well, there's no doubt that you don't sleep as much that evening as you do on a normal night. you know, i stayed up late and woke up early. by that point, though, i felt as if i'd examined every aspect of
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the operation. we had been preparing for months now. at that point you have some serenity in knowing that you've made the best possible decision that you can and, you know, in that situation you just -- you do some praying. >> in a moment, the president reaches a decision. then he's forced to give the appearance of business as usual. >> the correspondents dinner was a different story. that was a little bit of acting going on there, because my mind was elsewhere. ♪ on top of the world right now ♪ join for free and expect amazing.
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friday morning, april 29th. marine one was idling on the south lawn preparing to take the president on the first leg he of the trip to survey the severe tornado damage in tuscaloosa, alabama. before walking the out the door in a helicopter in a scene captured by the white house photographer, the president met with four members of his staff. chief of staff bill daly and tom donlon and his deputy and counterterrorism chief john
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brennan. they were that morning the four most important irishmen on this side of the atlantic. judging by this photo, we are all approximately in our positions, if i play the part of bill daly. the president is not here. it is 8:20 a.m. how is it you knew to be here with the president that morning? >> we'd arranged to meet with him here prior to going to tuscaloosa, alabama, to get his final decision. >> he was touring storm damage, so he's in casual clothing. his ride is idling out the back door. he comes to you, stands in this grouping and says what to the best of your recollection. >> my recollection is that he said it's a go. we're going to do the assault. we're going to do the raid. complete the orders, and let's go. >> i recall being here that morning working up briefing points for him, and i think tom started in. the president said, i got it. it's a go. we looked at him, and he said it's a go. let's get it going.
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>> it was the last check. as tom said, he had made up his mind overnight, told us it was a go, and we then had to implement his direction. >> once the president had made that decision, we knew instantly what our time line was and what was going to move, when it was going to move. admiral mccraven would check in and say, here's where we are in the time line. >> did you seek anyone's counsel? >> i didn't, and the reason was because this had to be such a close hold operation. there were only a handful of staff in the white house who knew about this. the majority of my senior staff didn't know about it. my secretary didn't know about it. my personal aide didn't know about it. >> the first lady? >> the first lady didn't know about it. >> your husband didn't know? >> no. >> mrs. obama didn't know? these are big-time washington diplomatic security secrets.
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>> yes. this was such an important secret to keep, no one in the state department knew. the same, i think, except for those with need-to-know in the pentagon and cia and certainly the white house. so i just felt a personal responsibility to keep it close, but that meant that i was basically, you know, having to consult with myself, to be honest. >> keeping this secret also meant going on about the business of presidency, touring that awful storm damage in alabama while knowing at athat very moment u.s. navy s.e.a.l.s were already the on the move halfway around the world. you had to go to tuscaloosa? >> yes. >> you had to go have fun at the correspondents dinner? >> yes. >> seth meyers makes a joke about osama bin laden. >> did you know that every day from 4:00 to 5:00 he hosts a
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show on c-span? >> how do you keep an even keel, even when we look back on the videotape of that night, there's no real depiction there's something afoot? >> you know, when i go down to tuscaloosa, i'm very much present there, because the tragedy and the devastation that had happened to the folks there, i think, consumed all my attention. so that wasn't difficult to focus on. the correspondents dinner was a different story. you know, that a little bit of acting going on there, because my mind was elsewhere. >> i ran into many friends and acquaintances that night who subsequently remarked after the fact that pretty good poker player. he didn't give anything up. >> we didn't want to have any sense anywhere that something was up.
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that we had any mass cancellations for the dinner. one correspondent said you're leaving. you're leaving early. where are you going? i said, i have this thing tomorrow. >> i can't remember if you went to that correspondents dinner, but here's the president going to tuscaloosa, correspondents dinner. you have to laugh it up. you've got to live a little bit of a lie for the public good. >> well, that's exactly true. i did not go. i had one of chelsea's friends got married. i went to the wedding. i went to the reception. i was at the reception, and it was so ironic. all these smart, young people who work in all kinds of enterprises, one of them came and said do you think we'll ever get bin laden? i said, i don't know. i have no way of knowing, but i can tell you this. we'll keep trying. so i'm leaving now. >> simultaneously seth meyers at the hilton is making a bin laden joke. >> i know it. i really got home and couldn't sleep.
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i couldn't sleep the next night. i mean, it was -- i don't have trouble sleeping, but those were two tough days. >> it's almost in a sport you've taken the shot. now you don't know yet whether the shot will go or not. >> in a moment, they've taken the shot and then something goes wrong. >> when we saul tw the helicopt spinning the way it was, we said, "that's not the plan." so talk to your doctor about low t. hey, michael! [ male announcer ] and step out of the shadows. hi! how are you? [ male announcer ] learn more at isitlowt.com. [ laughs ] hey!
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when "rock center" continues, what we now know about the lengths the white house went to keep the mission a closely guarded secret. is it true you ate costco food as to not draw any attention? alli can help you lose one more by blocking some of the fat you eat.
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on sunday morning may 1st of last year at 11:00 a.m., members of national security team started arriving in the situation room for what they
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knew would be a long haul. the navy s.e.a.lau mistake would mean scrubbing the mission. so nothing, including the provisions for the situation room, was left to chance. is it true you ate costco food to not draw any attention and multiple were contacted to prevent any one large order to draw attention to the gathering? mr. mcdone noug can you confirm the food details. >> i can confirm that we did eat costco that night and throughout the day. >> did you classify that? >> we did not. it's a good question. >> the president played golf that morning, nine holes on the grounds of nearby andrews air force base. back at the white house at 2:00 p.m. he headed downstairs to
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join the others in the situation room. this this is the lower hallway, the part nobody gets to see of the house where you live and work, and you have worn a path to the situation room. i saw this. this is unbelievable. these are the drama of -- >> as it was unfolding. >> of that night. >> yep. >> all of the different scenes. >> yep. >> when you see it now, i imagine that was as tight as things ever get in this building. >> it was tense. it it was a tough, tough night, but i tell you, everybody operated just the way you hoped they'd operate. we're going in the situation room. >> they open it you for you? >> once in a while. >> upon entering the situation room, everyone has to surrender their electronics. they're placed in a metal lined wooden box that was once a cigar humidor.
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it's a bright but sparse series of rooms with low ceilings and swayed covered walls for sound insulation, and in every room digital clocks read out the time zones including the president's location at any given moment. that sunday at 2:30 p.m. eastern time the situation room was notified the first wave of helicopters was wheels up from jalal bad in afghanistan en route to the compound in pakistan. they were carrying navy s.e.a.l.s, a pakistani american translator and a trained military dog named cairo. >> the mood was tense, but it was one that was for all intents and purposes because of the president's decision, it was out of our hands. so it was up to those great professionals in our military to execute this mission. >> they were accustomed to operating in the dark and land inning compounds where they weren't sure what was behind closed doors.
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they were all trained to do that, and a lot of them had as much gray hair as you and me. if you passed them on the street in civilian clothes, you might have thought they were accountants or doctors or worked at home depot. you wouldn't know. >> on the big monitor, admiral mccraven appeared from afghanistan while leon panetta appeared from cia headquarters nearby in langley, virginia. they provided a kind of split-screen play-by-play nare of it has it unfolded. the president sat here at the head of the table. there's no mistaking that. that day as the meeting went on as all the participants watched the video screen, at one point the president got up from here, went out here into the small lobby of the situation room, and then turned left into this small conference room, a room never
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built for as many people as ended up in here that day. the president took his chair the in the corner. all the other participants filled in, and here's what they were watching. it's a room with two flat screen tvs. in one them was the incoming video feed live from a drone parked above that compound showing the military action in progress. what made you get up and come in here? >> what happened was we were monitoring the situation in there, but most of the information was being fed from this room. once the helicopters had taken off, it was going to be several minutes before they actually started to approach the compound. we're talking about a fairly long flight. the question was, mr. president, do you want to wait in here and
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we'll keep you updated? >> n i said he no i'd like to be where we get the information real time, which was next door. i said i don't know about you guys, but i'm going to come in here and let's make sure we know exactly what's going on. >> the in the small conference room in the big chair beneath the seal he found brad webb who was receiving and translating more information on the mission. as an experienced combat veteran in that region, webb was a good man to have at the table. >> he started to get up, and people went through the protocol and figuring out how to rearrange things. i said don't worry about it. you focus on what you're doing. i'm sure we can find a chair and i'll sit he right next to you. that's how i ended up in this folding chair. >> what were you watching? >> we were able to mon for in real time what was taking place. >> the visualization that we were able to see on the screen in that small sit room, you know, was certainly somewhat
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hazy but totally intelligible to you. >> in the immediate air space over the compound, the blackhawks were on final approach to landing and then trouble. one of the helicopters crashed up up and over a stone wall. the mishap was blamed on a bad downdraft and unusually warm surface temperatures which affect lift and maneuverability. the mission was off to a tense start. >> so what you see there is the very first thing that was needed to happen in order for mission to be a success as we were told didn't happen. the helicopter didn't make it in the right spot. everyone went like, whoa. >> you're watching drone video. you can see a flash. you can see there's been event. the rotors stop turning. you're worried about the s.e.a.l.s on the chopper. >> right. it was the shock of the moment. all of us sitting there and i would predict or military
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defense colleagues. for a minute we're kind of holding that breath again. >> when we come back, a mission in jeopardy is brought back on track. >> mccraven apparently didn't change his style of speech. he said we amended the mission and didn't miss a beat. >> did not miss a beat. he is a cool customer. switching to geico sure are happy. how happy are they jimmy? happier than antelope with night-vision goggles. nice! get happy. get geico. fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more. till you finish your vegetables. [ clock ticking ] [ male announcer ] there's a better way... v8 v-fusion. vegetable nutrition they need, fruit taste they love. could've had a v8. or...try kids boxes!
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the navy s.e.a.l.s swooped in. they didn't want to spend more than 40 minutes on the ground in the compound. they also knew they'd just lost a potential ride out of there. while there were three other choppers, one of their best had crashed and was a total loss. >> the most concerning part of the whole operation was when we saw the helicopter not landing the way it was supposed to. that was a touch-and-go moment. >> we were all holding our breath waiting for word as to whether we were going to get our guys out safely. >> for one elder statesman in that picture that day, this
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mission dredged up an awful but always present reminder of desert one, the failed attempt to rescue the iranian hostages in 1980 when eight u.s. special operators were killed. >> bob gates, who in that photo was off to my left, bob gates was in that same room when desert one happened, and so my first glance was at him. >> if this had failed in spectacular fashion, it would have blown up your presidency by all estimates, would have been your waterloo and perhaps your watergate consumed with hearings and inquiries. how trick did the specter of jimmy carter, desert one hang in the air here? >> i thought of it. i will tell you that there are moments in your presidency where you really do put politics aside. certainly we thought about the
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fact that if there was a failure here, it would have disastrous consequences for me politically. we knew the examples of the carter presidency, and we understood what happened there. but i tell you, the only thing that i was thinking about throughout this entire enterprise was, i really want to get those guys back home safe. >> as they watched the attack play out from the situation room, they could see the blackhawk pilot had managed a kind of controlled crash landing, but still that helicopter was the first casualty of the mission and later learned it wasn't just any helicopter. when the first pictures of the wreckage emerged hours later, aviation websites went wild. this it turns out was the stealth version of the blackhawk the u.s. had been rumored to be developing for years designed
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for near sisilent, invisible operation. in the comes days neighborhood children were picking through the pieces of what was among the might hey u.s. military's best kept secrets. back inside the situation room listen to admiral mccraven's play-by-play of mission, you'd never know something had gone wrong. >> that room had tremendous confidence because, indeed, the officer commanding this operation, admiral mccraven, didn't have a change of intonation in his voice. >> mccraven didn't change his style of sfeech and said we amended the mission and did not miss a beat. >> did not miss a beat. he's a cool customer. >> right then another wrinkle. one of the bin laden's neighbors was up and watching the action, and he happened to be an enthusiastic twitter user who in his own way broke the news of the raid to the wider world via twitter.
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helicopter hovering above outtabd was a rear event they hadn't prepared for. this happens 40 characters at a time, and you're watching this and a guy is on twitter saying, hey, you don't often see these flashes and helicopter traffic here at 1:00 in the morning. unbelievable that it happened. >> yes. people were waking up. this was in a neighborhood. this was not isolated with, you know, hundreds of acres around it. there were other houses nearby, and people were starting to come out onto their roofs and trying to figure out what was happening. >> the president knew the 40-minute timer of the commando operation on the ground was running down. >> at this point i think all of us understand that we're a long way to go before the night is done. you know, i've said that this
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was the longest 40 minutes of my life. >> we could see the helicopters. we could see the disembarking from the helicopters and our guys moving. it was an intense experience for all of us, because it was real time visually until we lost the visual connection inside the building. >> as the seals worked their way to the top of the staircase, a firefight was under way. finally the people in the situation room heard the prearranged s.e.a.l. team code name for osama bin laden, geronimo. >> we knew that was the call sign. when we heard they felt they had identified geronimo, that was the first moment. and then geronimo kia. >> killed in action. after more than a decade to find him, osama bin laden was believed to be dead. >> when that call went out, you
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know, that was certainly the team's view that they had successfully captured or killed him. as best they could tell, he was the right guy. >> now, you say capture or kill. everybody does. were you really going to capture this guy? >> absolutely. >> and what? put him in the back of a blackhawk? >> absolutely. you know, there had been provisions made for that outcome. >> we also understood that it was not likely that he was going to give himself up in that way, and that there was a strong possibility that he would end up being killed if, in fact, he was in the compound. >> let's be very blunt about the bottom line job description of those on this team. there is one guy walking around this country who put a laser sight spot in the middle of his forehead sxand pulled the trigg. >> when i talked to the team about that specifically, their response is we all did it.
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>> there was one guy that put a laser sight on his forehead and pulled the trigger and he knows it was their m-4 or whatever weapon they were using. >> they would tell you they all did it. >> when we got the message that they believed they had killed bin laden, it wasn't over, even though that was an amazing sense of, for me, satisfaction. i'll be very honest with you. i mean, i he fefelt that that w absolutely the right thing to happen. >> the s.e.a.l.s wrapped up bin laden's body and gathered his computer and papers. before they left they tried to destroy the crippled stealth helicopter with grenades designs to burn up the secret electronics on board, but they didn't destroy everything. back in the situation room it got more tense as they knew this was the tricky part, flying out over pakistan after launching a spectacular attack and getting
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safely into afghan air space. during all of it, vice president biden was nervously holdly onto a rosary ring. >> during this period i'm going like this with the rosary, and it got to be point where we knew the mission had been successful in that bin laden was on board. it was an hour flight back, and before they get to the border, i go like this to put it back in my pocket. i felt a tap on my shoulder. >> i leaned down and said, mr. vice president, not yet. keep it going. as important as capturing or killing bin laden was, it was more important to get them out. we were a long way, even as we got bin laden, his body in that helicopter, we were a long way from completing that mission at that point. >> is a finger rosary part of military planning? >> no, no. >> finally the s.e.a.l. team landed safely in afghanistan.
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they sent graphic photos back to confirm the dead man in their possession was bin laden. how did that feel to look at that image? >> you know, it -- i think it's wrong to say that i did a high-five, because you have a picture of a dead body. understanding the satisfaction for the american people, what it would mean for 9/11 families, what it would mean for the children of folks who died in the twin towers who never got to know their parents. i think there was a deep seeded satisfaction for the country at that moment. >> wasn't so much a high-five moment as a kind of looking around and just feeling together as almost one body that, okay, it's over.
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>> in a moment, the exhausted team inside the situation room must now go about the careful business of telling the rest of the world. >> got him. turn the tub around! [ female announcer ] with zero grams of trans fat per serving, i can't believe it's not butter is a superstar! ♪ turn the tub around, and become a believer.
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this is rare videotape captured by white house staff members. it shows what happened after the president and his team left the situation room. >> good job, national security team. >> thanks. >> thanks for that. >> proud of you. you guys did a great job. >> relief and congratulations were brief, because there was another round of work to be done. revealing the secret had to be handled carefully. what's it like to call pakistan and say, we just flew 50 guys into your country, out of your country. we're out of your air space. we took out bin laden, who was living in your midst? >> we were concerned about this from the start. what made is easier from my perspective is they were on notice. since 2007 since i was campaigning for this office i said if we get bin laden in our
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sights, we're going after him. i had repeated that to pakistanis face to face. >> a process begins where you have to start calling presidents, domestic, foreign, committee chairs, cabinet members. all the people you wouldn't want to read about it in the paper the next day. >> right. we began to do exactly as you described. create the list, who was going it to call who. obviously the president called former presidents and asked me where to find my husband. bill didn't know anything. i hadn't talked to anything about it. the first he heard is when president obama called him. >> you place a call to president bush 43 on whose watch the attack happened. what was that like? >> well, i think that it was an important symbol of who we are as a people. we get into these partisan fights, administrations come and go, but there's a certain of
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continuity about who we are and what we care about and what our values are. >> at roughly the same time and as we learn here for the first time, admiral mullen had to call his pakistani counterparts about the pieces left from the crash stealth helicopter and how important that wreckage was to the united states. how much did you worry it would end up in the wrong hands? >> a great deal. i called the general in pakistan. i felt obligated to let him know what happened. part of that conversation was about the helicopter, and i said we need that back. >> a friend of mine in the military said 48 hours after that explosion, we expected pieces of that tail to be arriving in china for the full inspection. >> i'm not going to comment on that. >> i figured you wouldn't. for the president who hadn't been able to breathe a word of any of this to his own family, near the end of the day he checks in with his wife and daughters. the first lady is at dinner? >> she's at dinner, and i let
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her know, you know, that i'm probably going to miss dinner because i've got a few other things going on tonight. it turns out we had a fairly important thing to announce. >> and then it came time to explain it to two young daughters? >> yeah. malia and sasha, i think, were too young to fully absorb 9/11. on the other hand, they've grown like all our children have grown up in the shadow of 9/11 and terrorism and understood who osama bin laden was. >> the reason i'm calling is to tell you we killed -- >> deep inside the white house even as the calls were going out and a speech was being finalized, something unexpected started to erupt within earshot just outside the white house gates. >> as we are walking up on my way to make the formal announcement, people had already begun to gather because the news
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had started trickling out spontaneously, and at first i didn't understand what's na noise going on? >> we could hear this roar. we had no idea what it was. then all of a sudden we were able to decipher usa, usa. >> usa, usa, usa, usa! >> it was just an aastonistonis moment. >> someone said throngs of people are outside the fence waving american flags and cheering. that, i think, is, again, was a reminder of who what this meant to the country and how important it would be. >> you you ggot him, but what d get you or us? are we safer? we've had setbacks vis-a-vis or military with desecration, with the burning of the koran, unforced errors.
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what's the net effect end result now that you have a year's clarity behind you? >> even before we got bin laden, we had al qaeda on its heels, and by getting bin laden, we capped off that two-year campaign. that was important. that makes us safer. did it completely diminish all risk of terrorism? absolutely not, but all told a year later are we better off? are we safer because we got bin laden? absolutely. >> i also think it sent a message, brian, to the whole world. you attack americans, innocent americans, we will follow you to the gates of hell. i think it sends an incredibly strong message about our capacity and about our will. >> of all the things you've witnessed in your official life, where does this day rank?
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>> it was both a professional responsibility that i had as secretary of state, and it was personally so important to me. you know, i was at ground zero the next day, and i mean, i will never forget what it was like flying over that and watching those burning hulks and knowing all the bodies buried there. so it -- it is probably the most impactful combination of personal and professional responsibility that i've ever had. >> back home days later, the president got to meet the s.e.a.l.s who had conducted themselves so brilliantly and with characteristic modesty, including the veteran pilot whose expertly controlled crash landing prevented disaster and saved all the s.e.a.l.s on board his helicopter. >> i will tell you, when i saw that pilot, i gave him a pretty good hug. >> what was it like for you to
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get to know them and see them? >> great guys. they presented me with the flag that had gone on that mission signed by all of them on the back. i think it's fair to say that will probably be the most important possession that i leave with from this presidency. >> most important day of your presidency? >> most important single day of my presidency. the most intense, concentrated day that i've had as president of the united states. >> for all of us who put this broadcast together, thank you for being with us from the whiti >>, could evening, everybody.

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